I have been eating Bacon Grease Milk Gravy literally my entire life.
My Granny taught me how to make it before I was ten years old.
This is a pretty quick video about how to make it.
A couple of things I would add here,
I like to really brown my roux, I prefer my gravy darker than most folks.
Depending on how many folks you are trying to feed, you can adjust this to make just enough for two people or double and even triple the amount of ingredients to make a bunch.
The one thing the young lady didn’t mention is that you have to be careful when you are stirring it after you have added the milk.
What you want to see to judge when it’s time to take it off the heat is when you scrape a fork across the bottom of the pan like you are trying to push it all to one side of the pan, when you can see the bottom of the pan and the gravy doesn’t rush back in like the tide to cover it back up, you are done.
The gravy will continue to thicken up after you turn off the heat and it will get so thick you can slice it with a knife if you cook it too long.
Thankfully all you have to do is add some more milk and stir the hell out of it again and it will thin back down.
Then add more salt and pepper to taste.
I also like lots of pepper in mine.
However, never try to add more flour if you think it’s too thin, the flour has to cook or it will taste like raw flour.
Just keep stirring it on low heat and it will thicken up.
You can add bits of bacon or sausage to it if you want but I like it just the way it is.
This stuff is THE BOMB poured over crispy hash browns.
Of course it’s main use is for Biscuits and Gravy.
My Grandmother kept a little tin soup can on the back of her stove and kept her bacon grease in it.
She could whip up a skillet full of gravy in literally minutes with zero advanced notice, 24/7.
That can was still on the back of her stove the day she died.
Nothing beats Mamaw’s gravy……
My mother, who came from First Families of Virginia stock, taught my wonderful cook wife how to make this, and she’s been fattening me ever since with it. Also taught her the Southern way to cook cornbread, with back sorghum molasses.
Even *I* know how to cook it. That’s a miracle in itself…
My Dad loved sorghum. He would pour it on a pat of butter mash it all together. Called it gray jax. Said his mom would pour it on biscuits put in a little metal pail and that was his school lunch.
A little off topic, but involving the grease can on the back of the stove, one of my grandmothers used her grease to make soap. Remember that Ivory soap commercial that stated “so pure it floats”? Didn’t have anything to do with purity. It floated because it full of animal fat just like my grandmother’s home made soap.
Only use a cast iron skillet.
Goes without saying among THIS crowd…
;P
When I was done with overnight maintenance on the TV transmitters, I’d swing by a little cafe for breakfast on the way home at daybreak.
A gravy boat with a split biscuit in it, scrambled eggs on the biscuit, and slathered in thick milk gravy with plenty of pepper. I’m getting all drooly right now! That’s my favorite “worked all night breakfast”. Haven’t made it in a long time…. But it is some good.
Yum!
I had to teach my self, given that my momma’s a Yankee Girl from Philthadelpia where “extra spicy” meant salt AND pepper. Fortunately we migrated down Virginia-way by the time we settled back into the States when daddy retired from the USAF. Things I’ve learned making Sausage Gravy, (1/2 # Sausage):
– 3 tablespoons each of fat & flour for 2 cups of milk.
– Use butter to top it off if not enough fat.
– Cayenne, Paprika, & Sage in addition to the Salt & Pepper.
– Brown the flour beforehand for really nice rich, brown, slightly nutty flavour.
– Home fried potatoes work just as good as biscuits. Ditto mashed-potato waffles.
Fortunately, I grabbed about 25 pounds of sausage from Wilson’s of Catlett the week after they closed and still have a few pounds in the deep-freeze.
Turnin’ a simple topic like bacon-fat gravy into poetry and memories: priceless. My gramma and my Mom never kept it on the stove. They kept their bacon-fat in a can in the ‘fridge. I remember many the time going to fetch it for them both. I’ve got 3 mason jars in my ‘fridge. Traditions, eh?